Sarah's hippo scavengers on TV tonight (From Western Telegraph)

St David's Sarah Beynon stars in Hippo: Wild Feast

11:00am Monday 7th November 2011 in News

'A once in a life time experience' is how a Pembrokeshire entomologist described filming a new high-tech natural history programme for Channel 4.

Sarah Beynon from St Davids was part of a team of wildlife experts who flew out to Zambia to film predators, scavengers, birds and insects consum the carcass of an adult hippo.

The result of their research is aired tonight (Monday) at 9pm on Channel 4.

The insect expert carried out experiments including examining the effect that some of the smaller scavengers might have on the hippo carcass and tested to find out what invertebrates were out in the Zambian night sky.

Sarah also carried out a separate experiment with chicken carcasses and answered questions during the live feed streaming on the Channel 4 website as events unfolded.

Sarah said: ‘It was a once in a lifetime experience being able to observe wildlife with the latest high-tech technology and previously unseen animal behaviour.'

Hippo: Wild Feast will air at 9pm tonight, presented by Mark Evans it gives viewers the unique opportunity to watch nature's food chain.

Sarah, who is currently in the final stages of completing a doctorate at Oxford University, said:

‘We were working in extreme conditions which almost prevented us from filming in the first place.’

The extreme heat, which saw the air temperature hit 46C and ground temperature peak at 62C, caused the high-tech camera equipment to temporarily stop working.

‘After the large animals had finished feeding, I was lucky enough to go and investigate the carcass to hunt for carrion insects.

"The stench of rotting hippo was overpowering, but it was worth it to see the wealth of insect life feasting on the remnants,’ she said.